Ihsan "Sam" Farha (; born 23 February 1959 in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

) is a Lebanese professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player. He is best known for finishing as runner up in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 2003. He has won three bracelets at the WSOP in his career.

Personal life

When the civil war erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the Farha family moved to the United States in search of a better life. The young Ihsan "Sammy" Farha went on to earn a degree in business administration from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. While completing his studies, he also learned to play pool, ping ball, and the video game Pac Man so well that he earned substantial money by playing these games against others for cash. After graduating from college, he moved to Houston, Texas. That is where he had his first encounter with poker, in the eighties. Shortly after, he made a trip to

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. His winnings at the poker tables made him realize he could make a living playing cards. Farha then decided to quit his job and moved to Vegas.

World Series of Poker

Farha's biggest tournament finish was in the 2003 World Series of Poker

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

, where he finished second to Chris Moneymaker for $1,300,000. On TV, Farha was identified as an "investor", a job Farha said he never actually held but was rather an identity he held to convince people to start a game with him. On the second day of play, Farha lost a major pot to Barry Greenstein leaving him with only 10% of the average stack. He was considering leaving at this point and was talked into staying in the tournament by Greenstein. He lost the final hand to Moneymaker when he went all-in with a pair of jacks on the flop, only to be called by Moneymaker who had flopped bottom two pair, which held after the final river card was dealt. In a rematch between Farha and Moneymaker a few months later, organized by

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, Farha won. They played against each other again in a special "grudge match" during 2011 World Series of Poker, which was won by Moneymaker in best-of-three format.

World Series of Poker bracelets

All of Farha's WSOP bracelets have come in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

events.

Other poker activities

*Farha has also finished in the money in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, once for $75,000 and the other time for $125,000. He also has three cashes in World Poker Tour events, for a little over $100,000. *Farha co-authored a book ''Farha on Omaha'', a detailed guide on Omaha poker strategy. Farha intersperses basic strategies with his own personal strategies, so players can learn not only the game but also the style of Farha himself. *Farha is working on a book, tentatively titled ''Luck is Far More Than Enough'', a

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

poker series, and a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

. *Farha is a spokesman for Harrah's casino in

. *Farha has appeared on the GSN series '' High Stakes Poker'', in seasons 1-4. Farha also made a cameo appearance in the 2007 film '' Lucky You''. *As of 2017, his total winnings exceed $2,800,000 in live tournament poker, although he tends to primarily play in high-stakes Omaha cash games. His eleven cashes at the WSOP account for $2,586,105 of those winnings.

References

External links

Card Player profileGlobal Poker Index profile

Hendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile

PokerPlayerProfiles.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farha, Sam 1959 births Living people Lebanese poker players American people of Lebanese descent World Series of Poker bracelet winners Sportspeople from Beirut People from Wichita, Kansas University of Kansas alumni People from Houston Sportspeople of Lebanese descent